Time’s up for the Yes2Rail blog, which I launched on June 30, 2008 as a paid consultant on Honolulu's elevated rail project. Yes2Rail’s August 13, 2012 post was its last following the author's move to Sacramento, CA. You’re invited to read four-plus years of information-packed entries, many of which are linked at our “aggregation site.” Look for the paragraph with red copy in the right-hand column, below. Mahalo for all the positive comments Yes2Rail received since its start.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Will Rail Opponents Take Any Notice of the Social Equity Issue? It’s Doubtful, Since a ‘What’s In It for Me’ Outlook Blinds Them to Others’ Transportation Problems

Is anybody still stuck on
the fence over the Honolulu rail issue? It’s unlikely at this late date, but
those without a firm opinion might well consider a commentary in Tuesday’s
Star-Advertiser.

The newspaper headlined the
piece The rail will provide equal access to social and economic opportunity. Its authors are Mario Ramil, retired Hawaii Supreme
Court associate justice; Howard Garval, CEO of Child and Family Service; Sotero
Jucutan, president of the Oahu Association of Filipino Catholic Clubs, and the
Rev. Bob Nakata, executive committee member of Faith Action for Community
Equity’s Oahu Chapter.

Here’s the opening paragraph
for those without a subscription:

“In the ongoing debate
over rail, there has been a lot of discussion about the cost of rail but very
little discussion about how rail provides equal access to social and economic
opportunity to everyone regardless of age, race, economic status or
disability.”

A search of the
Star-Advertiser archives shows that nearly all of the focus on equity has come
from the FACE group itself. Yes2Rail tried to move the discussion toward the
project’s four goals, including social equity, early in 2011 when the blog highlighted the goals as described in the project’s Final Environmental Impact
Statement.

It was an attempt to provide
some contrast between the opponents’ objections about cost and traffic
reduction and the project’s intended outcomes that would last for generations.

As the commentary’s authors
note, there’s been little discussion of those goals, and if there has been any
media coverage of them, we can’t recall when. It’s easier to write about Cliff
Slater’s latest blast about rail delivering too little at too great a cost or
his proposal to build a toll road instead of rail.

As Yes2Rail said on January
11, 2011, “Equity is a good filter to use when evaluating anti-railers’
alternatives to the rail project, such as High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) roads and
elevated busways that lack stops or stations along the route…. HOT lanes fail
the equity test by not serving those who don’t own cars, beyond that poit, HOT
lanes serve only those who can afford to pay the toll! And elevated busways
that bypass communities along the route also fail to equitably serve all
potential users.”

Inequity for West Oahu
Residents

The authors lift the
definition of equity from the FEIS – “…the fair distribution of resources so
that no group carries an unfair burden of the negative environmental, social,
or economic impacts or receives an unfair share of benefits.”

With that as a yardstick,
“an inequity exists for those who live in West Oahu,” they write and then list
several examples. Among them is the burden of locating municipal facilities
there because they’re unwanted elsewhere, including the landfill, and the
region’s poor transportation infrastructure.

Continuing: “…the burden
is even greater for the many lower-income and minority workers who live in West
Oahu and commute to work in downtown Honolulu or Waikiki. They have among the longest
travel distances and their commute is made even longer by severe traffic
congestion, now the worst in the nation….

“Those who can’t afford
to drive – or are too young, too old or physically unable to drive – depend on
public transit. They have only one option and must suffer delays and undertain
schedules because of those delays. They spend two to three hours – sometimes
more – just going to and from work, school or medical appointments on any given
day. Can we say that these groups of people have equal access to all places?
No. They have been locked out of opportunity.”

Concern for Others

“I’ll never ride the
train” is the first thing you
hear from many rail opponents, but the commentary’s description of the
inequities that burden west-siders might be persuasive for anyone who can think
beyond their own circumstances.

The authors end their piece
with the factors that stand up well against opponents’ accusation that “nobody
will ride” rail:

• Approximately 70 percent
of the island’s population lives along the rail route.

• 83 percent of Oahu’s jobs
are located along the rail route.

• The rail route will
connect three University of Hawaii system campuses.

• Rail will be faster and
more predictable than buses and provides a more efficient and enjoyable
transportation experience.

• Rail transit is a
meaningful transportation alternative that saves both time and money.

• Higher density housing
around transit stations may also open up lower-cost housing options for
families.

If you know anyone who’s
still a fence sitter on the rail project, send them this commentary or at least
Yes2Rail’s summary of its main points. The blog’s January 3, 2011 post listed
the project’s four goals; here’s the FEIS’s paragraph on equity:

Equity is about the fair
distribution of resources so that no group carries an unfair burden of the
negative environmental, social, or economic impacts or receives an unfair share
of benefits. Many lower-income and minority workers who commute to work in
the PUC (Primary Urban Center) Development Plan area live in the corridor
outside of the urban core. Transit-dependent households concentrated in the
Pearl City, Waipahu, and Makakilo areas (Figure 1-9) rely on transit
availability, such as TheBus, for access to jobs in the PUC Development Plan
area. Delay caused by traffic congestion accounts for nearly one-third of
the scheduled time for routes between Ewa and Waikiki. Many lower-income
workers also rely on transit because of its affordability. These
transit-dependent and lower-income workers lack a transportation choice that
avoids the delay and schedule uncertainty currently experienced by TheBus. In
addition, Downtown median daily parking rates are the highest among U.S.
cities, further limiting access to Downtown by lower-income workers. Improvements
to transit availability and reliability would serve all transportation system
users, including minority and moderate- and low-income populations(emphasis
added).

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

So much of the rail-hater noise is nothing but "all about me" rhetoric of elitist exclusion. That's why it's so disgusting to see some self-styled progressives fall for it and become unwitting handmaidens of the reactionary right.

This has been the point I have been making for a while. Anti-rail coalition leaders are not against rail. They are against government helping those in need. They want a government so small that it becomes irrelevant. They do this with their rallying call that government is too large, That government is the problem, We pay too much in taxes, And if it's worth while the private sector will do it. This libertarian nonsense is caused the first Great Depression. None other than the Great President Dwight D. Eisenhower reduced the huge debt that was created by World War 2 and stimulated the economy by building the US Interstate highway system. The mainland has outgrown the highway system and like Hawaii to go forward needs a 21th century transportation system. In Hawaii and on the Mainland anti-rail forces tout their battle cry that we cannot afford to move this economy forward. We can't afford not to.

To 7/29 Anonymous: Buses are cheaper....so? Jitneys would be cheaper than buses and so would rickshaws. Would they do the job as well as jitneys or buses? Of course not. And would buses do the job that rail will do? Of course not. You can't stop with the dollar signs, Anon. That's not planning; that's doing the least possible thing without regard to whether it would be effective.

As for your last sentence, just think that through for a couple seconds, OK? Then post a retraction when you realize it's a ridiculous statement.

Dear Rail Supporters, I challenge you all to live your support. I would like you all to start driving and parking at designated rail stops and then getting around town from there. For those who need further clarification, I would like to ask all rail supporters to stop driving around town and to park at or near a designated rail stop and then figure out how you will get to your destination from the designated rail stop. If you find that you are able to get around town from a designated rail stop then you will show your support by living it. I hope that all PRP employees and everyone who supports rail will show their support by living in a way that not only shows their support but begins the change by living as they expect everyone else. Mahalo and have a nice day without your vehicle so you may truly live and be the change to support rail! I mua rail, live it !!!! Here is a map of designated rail stops: http://www.honolulutransit.org/rail-system-guide/interactive-route-map.aspx

To mspata: What in the world is hard to understand that rail isn't being built FOR EVERY SINGLE OAHU RESIDENT?! Rail systems the world over serve people who need to commute from home to work and back again at the end of the day. They're A-to-B-to-A people, and it works!

Your challenge betrays your susceptibility to those (maybe you're one of them) who said, "Rail won't work for ME, so I'm against it!"

Helping people "get around town"isn't what rail will do. Getting to and from town -- that's the project's future value.

As you go about having a nice day, please try to get your mind around this fact: Rail isn't for everybody, but it will be invaluable to those who simply want to save time and money getting to work and back home again.

This Isn't Political

Yes2Rail is a blog about the Honolulu rail transit project, which has become the key issue in this year’s mayoral race. We comment on the candidates’ plans to address Oahu’s growing congestion problem and whether those plans could meet the need as well as elevated rail can and will. That’s not the same as criticizing the candidates, and we urge our readers to recognize the difference.

Another red-light runner meets Denver at-grade train, 6.13.12

Honolulu rail will be elevated, with zero possibility for accidents like those shown in this column in cities with at-grade systems. Visit our "aggregation site" for much more on why elevated rail is the only reasonable way to build Honolulu rail.

What riding the train will avoid

Bus Accident Aftermath on H-1

'Black Tuesday'--9/5/06 Crash Produced Nightmare Commute

Typical H-1 Traffic

About Me

After five years of active-duty service as an Army officer with duty stations in West Berlin and South Vietnam, reported and edited for newspapers and broadcast stations (including all-news radio) in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu. Covered Honolulu city government for the Honolulu Advertiser and KGMB-TV. Served on Congressman Cec Heftel's staff in Honolulu and Washington, then managed corporate communications and was Hawaiian Electric Company's spokesman for nearly a decade. A communications consultant for 19 years before moving to California in 2012. Launched, produced and hosted Hawaii Public Radio's "live" weekly "Energy Futures" public affairs program in 2009-10. Authored books on The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ("Punchbowl" 1982) and on the decline of standard grammar in business and society ("Me and Him Are Killing English!" 2007). Now an information officer with the California Department of Water Resources.